Thanks for posting a link to the iBall Ken Fisher interview. I was thoroughly entertained by the drop-dead-gorgeous "Russian" blond making Ken feel noticeably uncomfortable, as she was conducting the interview in British English. The contrived atmosphere of Ken's London office, his failed attempts at making rehearsed humor appear spontaneous and his contrived smirky smile did not help to hide this obvious discomfort.

I thought that the real gem came early on in this interview, when Ken talked about "these people, who engage in rogue activities, who do terrible things, people inherently self-interested."

The quote about AIG that you are speaking about originally came from Ken Fisher's January Forbes column here. I have seen it repeated elsewhere several times after that, but it was not a part of the iBall interview.

Fisher Investments has at least 4 attorneys and a paralegal working on their defamation case against me. One of the attorneys is a named partner of one of the top securities law firms. The sleazeball attorneys have no problems twisting facts and words around. By the time they are done with you, it will not matter whether you defamed them, because you will probably be bankrupt. It has been a very tough 8 months for me... I thought you should know, before you decide to become a suicidal martyr in the war against Fisher. Are you trully "up for the challenge?"

Today I got to thinking....who do we blame for encouraging and promoting investors to buy into Fisher Investments...why none other than Fisher's sales reps, who are prepped by Fisher to sell, sell, sell, because there's a big fat commission involved at the end of the sale. Were these sales reps brokers? or licensed by the SEC, or just plain old fashioned sales reps authorized by Fisher to sell his services? If yes, then it's the sales reps we should be suing, individually, and not Fisher. So today I phoned my attorney and suggested that I pursue a lawsuit against Ursula, our Fisher sales rep, and Nothern California Fisher VP, according to her business card == married to a Dr (guess there's lots of money there) who lives in a community not far from where we live, who told us, quote: "I guarantee that in a year you will be so happy you went with Fisher Investments"!! Ursula, may regret her comments or the fact she ever worked for or sold us on Fisher Investments.

My understanding is that suing individual employees in a civil proceeding would be rather tough. Even if you name individual employees in your lawsuit, you will still have to fight the company. This is because employers must generally indemnify their employee, unless that employee "acts outside the scope of his or her employment responsibilities, or with malicious purpose, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner." And on the outside chance that you do succeed in wining a lawsuit against an employee who was acting maliciously, there would still be the issue of collecting from him or her.

I was thinking, however, that if enough people get threatened with SLAPP suits and complain about them to the US Department of Justice, they could get interested in prosecuting Ken Fisher personally on RICO violations.

Jake...you need to remember I'm a born and bred Scot. We were born to fight!!!! Remember Braveheart.......FREEDOM!!! If Ken Fisher wants to try and take me to court, be my guest. There are all kinds of laws in the the State of California to protect the elderly from fraud and malfeasance. Let's start with Elder Abuse (where I recently saved and protected one of my elderly friends from a financial scam, where I had to contact the District Attorney on the issue) the District Attorney in Sacramento has a separate unit for that; the California State Attorney General - Mr Moonbeam himself, Jerry Brown is also not happy with the investment world, and let's not forget my local Congressman, who lives just down the street from me, and my State Senator, who won election...all of whom I voted for. Yes Mr Ken Fisher, I think you should definitely bring a lawsuit against me for ....WHAT! Fisher Investments losing our life savings along with a zillion other elderly investors. I don't think our new President Barack Obama will be very happy with you.

I started working with the private client group in 02 when I was assured that they could get me out of the market to avoid major losses at times like these. Now that I have lost 43 per cent of my savings for retirement they want to send me a book on Ken's recommendations for getting rich. It should start with not putting my money with him.

Ken Fisher and his team took me for a ride. I bought into his company hook line and sinker. And I mean sinker. 100's of thousands gone. Lear from me STAY AWAY.

Fisher Investments Client Owner's Manual states: "We believe stop-loss strategies are incomplete and are inappropriate in actively managed portfolios."

If you think your approach will be "useful" for client's of FI, then you're so misguided that you will probably lose more money with Fisher. LOL

Paul, I am a British/US citizen, dual nationality. Go onto www.iii.co.uk, a website for investors in the UK. They have listed Fisher Investments in their advertising. I was not aware that Fisher Investments had a company in the UK, until I did a search for them. Post a negative comment, because I intend to do so. It is my goal to ruin this company for undermining and losing the assets of those of us, mostly elderly and those ready to retire (heard of Elder Abuse, Ken Fisher???) who have worked hard our entire lives to save our money; who have not consumed or borrowed to excess and who have tried to invest our hard earned money so that we could have a good life in our retirement years. Ken Fisher, and Fisher Investments have destroyed the dreams and savings of thousands of his clients. Let's burn his ass....and make sure his Forbes ranking as a billionaire is reduced to bag boy at WalMart!!!!!!!!!!

Eileen Findlay

No-you dont, but if your investment advisors incured a larger drawdown or lost more money than you agreed to risk in your investment policy statement that should have been incorporated into your IA agrement with him you do. Thats why they have stop loss orders.

You Got That All Wrong! Not only did they loose me money, but when I fired them and wrote about them in my blog, they sued me! How ridiculous is that?!

This is gibberish! I think you need Psychiatric help!

I trusted FI with my IRA and now I can not retire. They tout active management but everytime I asked for some action I was basically told I worried to much. Now my account is one half what it was in July. I have fired them but am looking for a class action law suit to join. Anybody got one?

Have you found a class action against Fisher yet?

Between May 15, 2008 and October 20, 2008 Fisher Investments lost more than 40% of my life saving. I finally had to pull out the remaining amount or risk losing the rest. The Fisher Investment's guy had to nerve to tell me that Fisher had done a good job for me!

I also started with FI in May 08. It has been devastating...
Most of the equities purchased were at 52 week highs during the huge run up in commodities. I was very skeptical after the losses mounted the first month in. I questioned the advisor constantly about repositioning the portfolio or at least to allow short positions to hedge. They stuck to the same global growth/peak oil story and led me to believe this was a temporary set back. There wan't any action taken. Now it's too late and I have lost more than half my initial investment. The whole point of signing on with FI was to have active management of my investments and most importantly, downside protection. That's what I was told to expect going into this agreement. There is no mechanism in place at FI to manage a clients portfolio in a volital market to mitigate losses.

Did they promise you that they would pull out of any bear market like they promised me?

Their documentation clearly stated that if they saw a bear market coming they would protect their client's portfolios by going to cash, bonds or something defensive. They did not do this when they should have in May '08. I guess Fisher was off somewhere writing his last book or touring around the country. He was wrong and admitted he was wrong. He greatly impacted my retirement. I guess billionaires don't care about the clients who made them all their money.

That is their claim to fame! They tell everyone that. Now they simply say "well we missed this one... sorry... tough luck".

I'm looking for the same.
I gave them $603,000,00 - last time I looked, down at least 50%
Too many people with similar stories.
What can we do?
I began the transfer process to Vanguard and I am distrustful of FI.
Again - what can we do?

I've notified Brualdi Law firm in N.Y.
Fisher promised that they would pull out
of any large bear market. I'm down more
than 50%. And that is half of my cash
investment.

To me, the issue is the promise that they
would pull out of a bear market.
Bill

I am getting in contact with some class action firms. What we need is enough people like us who have lost initial investment (not just profits) to attain critical mass. I have been blogging and emailing looking for them. Can you help?
Rowland

Any advancement in the class action effort. Please contact samsunset@gmail.com

Hi Rowland,

I'm interested in persuing a lawsuit against Fisher. What have you dug up?

I am interested too

I too would like to join a class actions suit, they lied to us as well.

Of course a class action suit would not have anything to do with clients losing their investments. There are no guarantees when it comes to the market, which is what every investment firm clearly states. However, in this case we were lied to. We were told if a bear market was on the horizon, our investments would be placed in a defensive position. We were told, and it is also in their publications, our money would be placed in cash, bonds or some other defensive investment. Ken Fisher said he made a mistake and did not take our investments defensive. I am not really sure why Ken Fisher did not go defensive. Why did everyone else see this coming?
Ken Fisher is a professional and was trusted with the life savings and futures of his investors, their children and grandchildren. There should be a great deal of responsibility that goes with all of the wealth and the position he was given by the investors.

I've lost over 50% of my original investment.
They promised that they would pull out of any
bear market.

Looking for a class action group. Did they say
they would pull out before a big bear market
when you signed up?
Bill

I HAVE INVESTED WITH FISHER INVESTMENT IN THE UK AND LOST A LOT OF MONEY.I UNDERSTAND THAT WHEN ONE INVEST IN THE STOCK MARKET ONE TAKE RISKS BUT I FIND FISHER 'S BULLISH ATTITUDE UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER QUESTIONABLE.I am with you.let me know what I CAN DO

I think that there may be grounds for a class action suit against Fisher Investments if:
1) They provided the investor with written confirmation of the time frame needed by the investor (i.e., we need our money in two years) and
2) They failed to take any action to provide for an individualized adjustment based on your on the goal of your investment i.e, growth and income, growth, capital preservation, etc. given the market volatility experienced prior to October.

On the surface it appears that Fisher Investments did not attempt to make any adjustment based on the individual investors goal investment goal brokerage. I based this on Ken Fisher admitting he was sorry because he was too bullish.

I would like to find out if other Fisher clients found that their goals were ignored by Fisher Investments.

Please be aware that Ken Fisher has became extremely wealth on the advisor fees we have paid the brokerage.
The have deep pockets from which to hire high power legal counsel to fight any action.

There are two major reasons I would not invest everything in Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:
1. Warren Buffet is 78.
2. Berkshire Hathaway is heavily in insurance.